The South-North Water Transfer Project: remaking the geography of China

• Published in: Regional studies 2017-03, Vol.51 (3), p.370-382
• Main Authors: Webber, Michael, Crow-Miller, Britt, Rogers, Sarah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: China; Chine; Environmental impact; Geography; gestion de l'eau; gestión del agua; gobernanza; gouvernance; Governance; Hydrology; Management; precios; Preisgestaltung; Prices; pricing; projet de transfert d'eau Nord-Sud; proyecto de trasvase de agua del sur al norte; Regierungsführung; Regional studies; River basins; Rivers; South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP); Süd-Nord-Wassertransferprojekt (SNWTP); tarification; technopolitics; Technopolitik; technopolitique; tecnopolítica; Wasserbewirtschaftung; Water consumption; Water distribution; Water management; Water resources; Water resources management; Water transfer; Water users; 南水北调计画; 水资源管理; 科技政治
• ISSN: 0034-3404; 1360-0591
• DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2016.1265647

The South-North Water Transfer Project: remaking the geography of China. Regional Studies. This paper uses a technopolitical approach to analyse China's South-North Water Transfer Project. The project promises to channel 25 billion cubic metres of water a year from the Yangtze River northward, connecting four river basins, three megacities, six provinces and hundreds of millions of water users. The paper argues that the project embodies a particular, engineering-heavy approach to water management; that, even so, it poses fundamental challenges to existing regional structures of governance; and that it promises continuing detrimental environmental impacts in source regions even as it invites similar future interventions in China's hydrological environment.